Orcas Island

It’s still there. Oh my gosh, I woke up this morning, looked out the window in front of me – thought I dreamed this whole scene but I am looking at it right now…the most beautiful vista imaginable. This small villa is located in the center of Orcas Island, right in the heart of the East sound. The Outlook Inn, where we are staying, is within walking distance of all kinds of tiny shops and extraordinary restaurants. Our little place has a private balcony overlooking the bay; two steps down opposite from our king size bed, is a rectangular living room, cattycorner from the couch is the gas fireplace burning gently, because it is cool here in the mornings. Around the bedroom area behind the beautiful view of the East Sound, around the kitchen area down the tiny hall you’ll find a bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub and a towel heater. You can see where my priorities are – warm towels…

Today the wind is blowing pretty hard. It is whistling a stunning sound. Right in front of me in the Sound the trees are swaying, the American flag is whipping and there are small white caps on the ocean. Pretty soon the morning fog will clear up and all will be right with the world.

Seattle

We had a day to do nothing because we are waiting to stay a night at one of the San Juan Islands off the coast of Seattle. I watched a PBS show one day on the San Juan Islands and hoped someday we could go there. See how PBS gets me in trouble? Anyhow, I didn’t think we would have time to visit the island on this trip but all of a sudden Ed reserved a hotel room so we were committed. However, in the meantime, we needed a place to stay before we arrived on the island and there were absolutely no vacancies in or around the Seattle area – very much to our surprise and dismay. Apparently there is a popular art exhibit, air show, sea-fest, and God-Only-Knows what else is in town for the reason of No vacancies in or around the Seattle area. We stopped at quite a few places with “nothing available” before Ed tried the “Let’s just stop one last time routine…” to see if he could get a small room for the night. We got the last room at an Embassy Suites Hotel about 17 miles north of the city. This suite is bigger than my house. It’s incredible. But more important than the size and comfort of the room, we got a room for not only one night but also two nights. This should have been impossible in the Seattle area, but someone was looking out for us. We needed to squander some time before we’re able to get our room on Orcas Island so we went in to the town of Seattle. Wow! The first thing we see is a para-sailor passing by a Norwegian Cruise Ship in the midst of numerous sailboats, a brilliant sapphire sky, and the deep blue sea in the backdrop. We took a walk to the Pike Place Market just for something to do and stroll through the busy shops. I hear a quartet of black men singing a familiar song, acappella, and I suddenly remember that the famous Pike’s Place Fish Market is located in this building. We fight our way through the crowded market, beyond the dazzling, bountiful, fresh flowers for sale … further than the artisans that make their own fine gold and silver jewelry… past the fresh pastry that makes your mouth water just looking at it… down a little further – pushing, shoving, tripping-- and ….there it is …The Famous Pike Place Fish Market. The men working in this booth are world renowned for selling –seafood---huh, you say “seafood” …of all things… how can that be exciting???. They sell fish to the average, every day, patron – and you ask yourself…how could that be thrilling???. Well, to make their work more fun and exciting selling seafood to the average every-day-person, they add a little pizzazz to their work by “throwing fish from behind the counter in to the crowd.” The employee that stands on the outside of the counter by the patrons actually catches the flying fish the other guy throws from behind the counter. These fish weigh about 15 pounds or more – they are not small fish. Then one of the big, burly men yells something out in a baritone voice to his fellow workers and all the other men answer him in their deep sort of military-like chant back at him. There was probably over a hundred people watching them do their work. We all were laughing and observing their little show and everyone was in awe at how much fun the workmen were having “just doing their everyday job.” Ed was laughing at the crowd as well as the performance that was on display before us. He said he couldn’t believe there were so many people there just to watch these men carry out their “job.” It was so much fun. Nobody was buying fish. We were all watching the men at work. They kept prodding us to buy their hundreds of varieties of fish, clams, scampi’s…anything. THEN, all of a sudden a fish comes flying out from behind the counter and the staff member, who was in the midst of the audience, didn’t catch the fish. We all screamed. Then we laughed because we found out it was a fake fish and they do that on purpose to get a rise out of the crowd. That was just too much fun. You have to experience the Pike Place Fish Market.

We then walked over to one of the piers and ate Alaskan halibut at an outside café. The Blue Angels were flying all around us. I was so excited to see the air show I could hardly eat. We got a good walk around town, saw the legendary Seattle Space Needle then got back to our rented mansion where we saw a wedding take place inside the atrium. I felt like yelling “EEEElllaaaiiinnnneee” like Dustin Hoffman did in the Graduate but I refrained. The wedding went forth…

Avenue of the Giants

I am glad we did that “bridge thing” yesterday before we found out about Minneapolis, Minnesota’s bridge collapse. Now it’s a little unnerving every time we go over a bridge. The odds are slim that it will happen again but “Oh, we feel terrible for those unfortunate people.” God Bless them all. They will have a lot of posttraumatic stress from that event. I sure hope my cousins who live in that area are all safe and sound.

We drove from the 57-degree foggy Pacific Ocean air to the Avenue of the Giants where we saw the lofty, massive, beautiful redwood trees today. You just never know where we will set out on this trip. This world-famous scenic drive is a 31-mile portion of old Highway 101, which parallels Freeway 101 with its 51,222 acres of redwood groves. It is by far the most outstanding display of these giant trees in the entire 500-mile redwood belt. The Avenue of the Giants is surrounded by Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which has the largest remaining stand of virgin redwoods in the world. It’s been said the oldest recorded redwood tree, more than 2,200 years old, was found in this park. Ever since I was in grade school and saw these stunning, lofty, breathtaking trees in my geography book, I fell in love with them and wanted to go to California and see them in person. Well it took a few years and a couple trips to California but I finally fulfilled one of my many dreams. Can you smell the fresh scent of these giant redwoods? The aroma is wonderful and the sound in the forest is near silent. Take a deep breath and breathe in the aroma of the giant redwoods and relax to the sound of silence in the deep dark forest of the giant redwoods. All I can say is “wow.”

We are now in Albany, Oregon and should be on our way to the state of Washington tomorrow morning. What a wonderful day we had today.

A Fun-filled Day

We went from San Simeon to Julia Pfeiffer State Park. That is the area where Big Sur is located. It was a beautiful walk through giant redwoods and then a jagged, steep, climb up a long hill to the top to see an aerial view of a valley. We thought we were climbing up to see the ocean view of Big Sur. That is not what we saw-ha! What we saw was a waterfall and a gigantic valley. Uugh, what the heck??? The part of Big Sur that we wanted to see, we never saw. The area we really wanted to see indicated they did not want trailers on the dirt road. It was mostly a fine dirt road with big rocks mixed in to make up the road. After our big climb and the exhaustion that came after the climb, we didn’t feel like negotiating that kind of road with a trailer on the back of our bike whether we were allowed or not.

We veered off the path of route 1 on Wednesday to see one of Ed’s friends whom he worked with at the mill for over 20 years. Paul and his family moved to the Napa Valley area a few years ago. A sad note about this couple, however, is they had a daughter who went to Iraq about a year and a half ago - about three days in to her tour-of-duty she volunteered for an assignment to help the Iraqi people and her helicopter went down and she died. She has a small daughter that now Claire and Paul Good are raising. The daughter who died was a twin. It is incredibly hard to see the trials and tribulations this family is still going through because of all the legal issues they now face with this child with little or no help from our federal government. Please keep them in your prayers – they surely need them.

Claire Good was a beautician in Ohio back in the day and I was having some trouble with my hair getting all tangled with the wind on this trip. So the day after we arrived to see them, Claire gave me a haircut. My hair is now user friendly with the motorcycle helmet. Thanks Claire.

Today we went to crazy, wild San Francisco Pier Area. While in the adventurous city of San Francisco, Ed had to maneuver the motorcycle and trailer beside cable cars, trains, cabbies, pedestrians, trolleys and buses – you name it we had to go around them. It was rather nerve wracking but Ed was so confident and careful in the city—I was a nervous wreck. We parked our “rig” in a parking garage, walked across the street to have lunch at Pier 39. The restaurant we picked to eat was looking out at Alcatraz Island and right next door to a bunch of Harbor Seals. Some of the seals were soaking up the rays, barking like dogs, or playing “King of the Dock.” The alpha seal owned the dock and if he didn’t like the other seals jumping up on it’s dock, he or she then would knock them off the small pier. It was pretty fun for us to watch these animals play while eating some great New England clam chowder and enjoying the view of the Bay. Uugh, I just need a peanut butter and jelly sandwich – I am seafood out. However, I will be on Slim Fast Diet Drink soon and “wishing” I had some Pacifi Coast Ocean Seafood. So anyhow Ed remembers he didn’t lock the bike and we had something valuable in the trailer $$$ - No one touched the motorcycle or trailer and we didn’t lose anything.

After we got out of the city of San Francisco and the terrific gusts of wind on the Golden Gate Bridge, and before we drove through Point Reyes, we got back on Rt. 1 again. A sign on the right hand side of the road indicated we were going to have a windy road for the next several miles and most of it right by a cliff near the ocean. Half way through this part of the ride I told Ed this road is better than Deal’s Gap, North Carolina. Let me put it this way: we went through twists, turns, gravel, tailgaters, rocks on the side of the hill that could fall in to the street at any time, lack of guardrails on most of the road, up a hill or down a hill the same time you are negotiating a switchback, sun in your eyes and opposite traffic in your lane at any possible time. Ed said it made Deals Gap, the place where motorcyclists go to experience “the twisties” look like a straight road. I laughed and told Ed if I die from this ride, I had a good life and tell the kids I love them. I wanted to throw up after we made it more than 11 miles of this kind of driving. I had to stop in a small town near the ocean and take some aspirins after that ride – but still it was fun and enormously exciting. Even Ed agreed that was a very demanding ride. He did a great job.

Stopping in a place called Bodega Bay to get gas was a treat. We found out that Bodega is the place where Alfred Hitchcock filmed the movie “The Birds.” They chose Bodega Bay because of the surrounding bleak treeless hills, quiet fishing harbor town and eerie looking fog. This movie was based on a short story by Daphne DuMaurier, and the original story took place in an English seashore village where murderous birds attacked the local villagers. In it’s day it was an dreadfully scary flick. This town was pretty cool to see and to learn some history of the area.

We are now in a town called Willits, California resting up for what we hope to be a big ride tomorrow. We’ve had way too much fun in California and it is time to move on. We could find a million more things to do but we just don’t have the time. Next time we get to San Francisco, we will make reservations to go to Alcatraz and research more attractions ahead of time. Oh well, that’s how we do things and we find weird areas we would have never found if we planned everything we did. But really, how naive can you be to think we could walk up and get a ticket to go over to the small island of Alcatraz? What were we thinking – I guess we weren’t. Rats!!!…it would have been impressive to see.

The Hearst Castle

Today was fun filled and adventurous, however we didn’t get very far in miles. We toured Old Mission Santa Ines that was a few miles from Highway 1. It was exceptionally historic and picturesque and it is still an active parish today.

On the way back to the highway we went through a Danish Village, grabbed a homemade, fresh Danish pastry and a cup of coffee and it was probably the most excellent pastry we ever had, mmmmmm. Later, as we were getting gas, a lady grabbed me and asked me if I could help her with her car. I’m the last person to ask about cars, consequently, I grabbed Ed and he helped a young woman and her mother, who was from France, put air in her car tires. They were exceedingly thankful and we went on our way. Merci Ed - you are always helping people in need.

We traveled Highway 1 today and a good majority of the time we didn’t see ocean. We saw various landscapes and experienced cool weather before we even saw the water. By lunch we were in Avila Beach where we stopped to eat. We drove down an old, bumpy, rotted-out pier, parked the bike, and ate at a seafood restaurant that was at the end of the wharf. This particular restaurant had tables that looked out in to the water. I don’t mean you look out at the landscape in to the water, I mean you look down in the middle of the table and you see the ocean and whatever wildlife is passing under your table. It was an exceptionally magnificent way to dine.

Next we headed to the Hearst Castle. The Hearst Castle was the extravagant estate of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. It is located near San Simeon California on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The estate was donated by the Hearst Corporation to the state of California in 1957 and it is now a State Historical Monument and a National Historic Landmark open to the public for tours. Mr. Hearst formally named the estate 'La Cuesta Encantada' ('The Enchanted Hill'), but he usually just called it 'the ranch'. Many a famous person stayed and played at the ranch. Usually they came via his private airplane – DC3- and landed on his own landing strip close by his mansion on his enormous estate. It is too hard to explain The Hearst Castle so I am going to put some pictures on the website so you can understand why I can’t give details of this Mid California attraction.

Now we are in a lovely room overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Simeon. It has a fireplace, whirlpool, and all the amenities that any tired person could desire. It’s a stroke of luck that we are here and more of an accident that we got this wonderful room for such a small price.

Make sure you look at the pictures at this link :

http://pacificcoasthighwayherewecome.blogspot.com/2007/07/riding-off-toward-sunset.html

The Hearst Castle

Today was fun filled and adventurous, however we didn’t get very far in miles. We toured Old Mission Santa Ines that was a few miles from Highway 1. It was exceptionally historic and picturesque and it is still an active parish today.

On the way back to the highway we went through a Danish Village, grabbed a homemade, fresh Danish pastry and a cup of coffee and it was probably the most excellent pastry we ever had, mmmmmm. Later, as we were getting gas, a lady grabbed me and asked me if I could help her with her car. I’m the last person to ask about cars, consequently, I grabbed Ed and he helped a young woman and her mother, who was from France, put air in her car tires. They were exceedingly thankful and we went on our way. Merci Ed - you are always helping people in need.

We traveled Highway 1 today and a good majority of the time we didn’t see ocean. We saw various landscapes and experienced cool weather before we even saw the water. By lunch we were in Avila Beach where we stopped to eat. We drove down an old, bumpy, rotted-out pier, parked the bike, and ate at a seafood restaurant that was at the end of the wharf. This particular restaurant had tables that looked out in to the water. I don’t mean you look out at the landscape in to the water, I mean you look down in the middle of the table and you see the ocean and whatever wildlife is passing under your table. It was an exceptionally magnificent way to dine.

Next we headed to the Hearst Castle. The Hearst Castle was the extravagant estate of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. It is located near San Simeon California on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The estate was donated by the Hearst Corporation to the state of California in 1957 and it is now a State Historical Monument and a National Historic Landmark open to the public for tours. Mr. Hearst formally named the estate 'La Cuesta Encantada' ('The Enchanted Hill'), but he usually just called it 'the ranch'. Many a famous person stayed and played at the ranch. Usually they came via his private airplane – DC3- and landed on his own landing strip close by his mansion on his enormous estate. It is too hard to explain The Hearst Castle so I am going to put some pictures on the website so you can understand why I can’t give details of this Mid California attraction.

Now we are in a lovely room overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Simeon. It has a fireplace, whirlpool, and all the amenities that any tired person could desire. It’s a stroke of luck that we are here and more of an accident that we got this wonderful room for such a small price.

Make sure you look at the pictures at this link :

http://pacificcoasthighwayherewecome.blogspot.com/2007/07/riding-off-toward-sunset.html

Sandcastles on the Beach

We all got up very early Sunday morning and went to Imperial Beach to see the Sandcastle Competitions in San Diego. This is a first for us and it was a blast. Most of the contestants are artists, architects and temporary construction workers who happen to work or play together as a team. In front of them, away from the shores of the beautiful Pacific Coast sandbox, dolphins are showing off in another playing field in the deep blue sea. Hmmm, who do you look at the carvers or the sea life? When the carvers are finished, the artwork gets judged and the winners get a monetary prize. Following the distributions of the blue ribbons, the children are chomping at the bit to destroy the artwork by stomping on the sandcastles. Uugh, all that artwork gets destroyed and smashed to the ground followed by the tide that comes in and wipes out the rest of the artwork.

The freeways are incredible here. First of all the scenery is beautiful and the plant life on the sides of the road are dazzlingly colorful. I counted seven lanes of traffic in one area on the way to L. A. It is wild and we weren’t even in rush hour. Motorcycles were splitting the lanes and Ed was chomping at the bit to do it. Spitting lanes mean you take your motorcycle and go between two lanes of traffic and you actually “make a lane between the normal lanes.” Californians do this all the time and it is legal. However, the fact that we have a trailer on the back of us would not be an ideal situation or a legal condition for splitting lanes. We even took an alternate route to get above L.A. We were encouraged to get out of L.A. before rush hour on Monday and that was truly a wise decision. PCH is Route 1, which intertwines with Rt. 101. It is the same kind of thing as Route 66 and I-40 going out west. We have seen many of the sites in southern California so we needed to start at a place we haven’t seen yet so our first stop was Santa Barbara.

We entered beautiful Santa Barbara last night and all I can say is WOW! This place is hopping for a Sunday evening. It’s been said that Santa Barbara is one of America’s best-kept secrets. I don’t know why it is such a secret because the scenery is stunning and an adult’s paradise. The topographical diversity creates a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities in a relatively compact area.

Santa Barbara area is famous for its beautiful beaches, most of which lie along a unique south-facing stretch of coastline that gives visitors sun all day long and shelter from winds and surf. This area covers enormously varied terrain: nearly one-third of its total acreage is set aside in the Los Padres National Forest, which includes the rugged San Rafael Wilderness Area.

Santa Barbara boasts one of the most pleasant year-round climates in the country. Temperatures range from the mid-60s to mid-70s throughout the year, however late summer highs climb into the 80s. Evening temperatures are refreshingly cool all year long. What more could you want…

Hot, Hot, Hot!!!

It was a terribly ugly hot day but we made it through the desert. I said something crabby to Ed and he replied, “It only got up to 108 degrees what’s the matter?.” I was ticked because I only saw 100 degrees on the temperature gauge and I didn’t want to see the temperature anymore - consequently I quit looking. However, now I knew the real temperature. I was so panicky I couldn’t control myself. Camera pictures of the desert were not in my thought process – just making it through to the other side of the mountain is where I wanted to be and that was my focus. I saw rain in the area where we were going so I concentrated on getting to the rain. It didn’t work – we never hit the rain. I must have been worried about this portion of the trip for a long time. It was reality now and I was hyperventilating. We did pretty much this same leg of the trip in 2001. I was panicking then so I knew what to expect. This time I knew what kind of heat I was getting in to plus the fact I’m on some medication that says on the bottle “drink plenty of water.” I was afraid that I would dehydrate typically a little faster than normal. With all those thoughts in my head and a few more years wiser, I was extra fearful - even more so from the 2001 trip.

The heat is the heat but I felt like I was in a dryer on the back seat. I actually had to put my shield down so I would be cooler. It was brutal and I never want to do it again unless it is at night. I said the same thing the last time I rode through the desert but this time I mean it….yeah right.

On the other hand, Ed was singing and tapping his hand to the music and feeling as “happy as a boy can be.” He loved every minute of the ride. When we got through the desert to the mountains, Ed’s “road runner” attitude came alive twisting through the mountains. I just held on for the journey. We stopped to get the camera out and I did get a few pictures of the beginning of the mountains. The temperature dropped 20 degrees and I regained some of the energy I lost. It was a rough ride for me today.

We are at my brother and sister-in-law’s house in San Diego. It is lovely in sunny southern California where the weather is perfect all year round. Ahhhhhh!

Now our journey begins…

Our Jewish Grandmother

So we got up this morning at 4 am and tried to be as quiet as two people can be rolling their luggage down the hall to put it in our trailer. We wanted to get a head start on the heat because we knew it was going to be hot today. The manager poked his head out to see what was going on and figure out why someone was up at that hour of the day. By the time I got out to the lobby the manager had coffee made for us. A few minutes later he had the cereal, waffles, milk, juices, donuts, etc. out all prepared for us. We never expected breakfast because the hours for breakfast are between 7 – 9. He told us we need to eat a good breakfast and he tried to feed us everything. This guy was our Mexican-Jewish Grandmother –ha! He was half my age but acted like a mamma sending her children off to school. Then as we left he wished us God Speed. We were a half an hour late getting out but we had a good breakfast. You just don’t find people like that anymore. However, as we finally were getting out the door he put a bowl of apples and oranges in front of our faces and said TAKE ONE…… For some reason we both took an orange….I think it is a “Snow White thing” if you know what I mean.

I am finally getting in to the groove with this motorcycle trip. Every day when I get on the bike and get settled I try to put my seat belt on. Duh! Today I finally didn’t do that.

We drove a tough 737.1 miles today. The whole trip thus far is 2,446 miles. It started out raining in San Antonio at 5:10 a.m. - cold and ended up hotter than hell itself in Lordsburg, New Mexico on Interstate 10 – 22 miles from the Arizona border. We skirted Mexico a good part of the day. But along the way, we went through a place called Iraan, Texas, and near the town of Iraan, located in Pecos County, Texas, was a ton of windmills spinning. There were lines, groups, miles, hundreds - no thousands of windmills running in this area. I just thought it was ironic because it was located in Iraan, Texas and they are using an alternate source to get electricity. No oil in Iraan, Texas. What’s with that Mr. Bush?

Ed said that every time we go west of the Mississippi, we lose a few miles per gallon in the bike. We did this time, too. However, after eating at Rosario’s last night on the outskirts of San Antonio, a very delicious Mexican restaurant, we had our own jet propellant – or an alternate fuel to propel the bike (he he he.) Regular gas isn’t as expensive as we thought it was going to be but in the desert it is higher than the cities. Indeed, the price of gas still isn’t anything like Alaska and Canada.

As we were driving on the Interstate along the line of Mexico most of the day almost everything on the radio was in Spanish. If you work at a Denny’s or McDonalds you need to be bi-lingual. It reached 97 degrees when we got in to New Mexico. We were doing fine with the heat until we reached construction and everything came to a stop. Now anyone who is acquainted with me at all knows that I am afraid of that kind of heat on a motorcycle. I go in to panic mode. There is no shade anywhere in sight and the sun is in full bloom. My fight or flight mode kicked in. I did everything I could do not to go berserk. There was just one-lane opened on our side of the freeway. We were going up a steep grade but we were behind one heavy construction vehicle and a light construction truck. The line of vehicles behind the construction crew was at a standstill on the freeway for about a half hour. Talk about Ed doing some fancy talking to calm me down…Things weren’t very pretty at that time. I was so frightened. We finally got going and I settled down. I have the same thing to look forward to tomorrow…… I hope it rains.

Today we stopped at a rest stop for a couple minutes and I went in to the restrooms. On my way out I saw a sign that said “Watch out for Snakes.” It would have been more helpful if I would have read that sign on the way in.

Everywhere we go people stop and ask us if they can look at our rig. I guess the wanderlust comes out in people and they start dreaming about doing a motorcycle trip like the kind we do each year. On the other hand, Ed had a little change of heart today when he told a man it is probably a good day to be in a car. It really was hot…

River Walk

We arrived in San Antonio Tuesday afternoon. It got pretty hot on Tuesday but then God sent us some delightful, refreshing, cooling rain. What a blessing when it is 90 degrees. It was a much more pleasant ride with the overcast skies and a revitalizing mist. As we entered San Antonio we stopped to have dinner and find a place to stay. We booked a darn nice hotel suite. Because it started to rain, and it was only a mile away, we scurried from the restaurant to the hotel on the bike without our helmets. We stopped at a traffic light and a San Antonio Motorcycle Cop came up beside us. He smiled and said hello. He looked at us and laughed and pointed at his helmet. Ed looked at him and said, “oh shit, do we have to have a helmet on in Texas?” The motorcycle cop nodded his head - yes. We pulled off and put our helmets back on our heads. 99.9 times out of 100 we wear helmets. We were just trying to get to this hotel before the rain began. What are the odds that we would run in to a cop!

We went to the San Antonio River Walk last night. This is one of the coolest cities I have ever been to see. The city is clean and the people are extremely nice. I guess San Antonians really take pride in their city, which they should.

San Antonio River Walk is a network of walkways around the San Antonio River linking several major attractions one story beneath downtown San Antonio. Shops, restaurants, people barges, foliage and special inconspicuous lighting line the River Walk. This makes up the amazing tourist attraction. It must have been fun down here when the Spurs played the Cavs. I can’t even imagine the excitement

History: (Skip if not a history buff)

The River Walk was the idea of a 27 year old architect, Robert Hugman in the late 1920s. As an alternative to paving over the troublesome San Antonio River, Hugman drew out a plan which allowed for both flood prevention and commercial development. Hugman maintained his office along the shallow river, despite warnings that he would be "drowned like a rat.”

Crucial funding came in 1939 under the WPA and resulted in the initial construction of a network of some 17,000 linear feet of walkways, about 20 intricately designed foot- bridges, and extensive amount of plant life including the live oak trees whose branches are visible from the street level.

Many downtown buildings have street entrances and separate river entrances one level below. This separates the automotive world (for delivery and emergency vehicles) from the pedestrian traffic below.

They say through the years the Walkway has been improved and extended, without losing its original character. It is truly something you should visit some day. It is so hard to do it justice in writing. Seeing is believing.

We haven’t seen the Alamo yet but it is pouring down rain and lightening is plundering upon us. Weatherman, Ed, said it will pass within the hour. So we will let the weather calm down, take it easy and lay back for a while before we go exploring again. This is a great resting place so far.

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We started early this morning and the weather was beautiful. On down the road the rain hit and we had to put on raincoats. It felt good to be cool. I am ashamed to say that I had gloves on, too. I really am high maintenance in the motorcycle world trying to be as comfortable as possible. But I would rather be comfortably warm and happy than cold and crabby. After a few hours of riding and only a couple minutes of rain, I took all but the necessary clothing you have to have on to be descent. It got hot. Not like I didn’t know it was going to happen sooner or later.

I had a brilliant idea today. The closer we got to New Orleans, the more I wanted to see it. Ed agreed to go there but he wasn’t real happy about doing it. He was going to go there for me. I was so excited I couldn’t stand it. My brilliant idea---- turned out to be a disaster. First we had to play dodgems with all the other drivers in the area trying to find the French Quarter, then every parking lot we drove up to wouldn’t let motorcycles in and add the heat factor which was rising in the air and in Ed’s mood… It turned out it wasn’t such a great idea after all. Ed was so ticked-off that we couldn’t park the bike and he was totally fed up. This place was not motorcycle friendly at all. It was too bad for New Orleans and too bad for me. I wanted to get a beignet in the worse way. I could smell the powdered sugar beignets and the chicory coffee. I could hear Jimmy Buffett singing about French bread and gumbo and I was in heaven… My mouth was watering but, but, oh no… I couldn’t get to where I wanted to go. It was the classic example of being so close but so far… It has been 33 years since I’ve been to New Orleans and I hardly remember it. I wanted to see, feel, hear, and smell it again but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. So we left New Orleans as fast as we got there. Oh well, maybe some other time.

We have crossed the Mighty Mississippi and are just outside Beautiful Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge is a lively town with a big port full of paddleboats, ore ships, barges and of course…casinos. Oh, it’s a good thing we don’t gamble. I wonder if Maverick was here back in the day???

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Two more weeks before we head out for our vacation and things are starting to get hectic. It is a busy time for us since the day before we leave on vacation, our niece, Julia, will be marrying her high school sweetheart Ed Kleppel. Everyone likes Ed and he fits right in the family thus the whole gang should have a wonderful time at this wedding. He is truly a great guy. Best Wishes to you both.

So Sunday, July 22, we should be heading toward sunny California via Alabama, Louisianna and the few southern states that we haven't been to yet on a motorcycle. The weird part about going to California to see my brother and sister-in-law is while we are on our way to their house, they will be at our house for Julia and Ed’s wedding. We don’t see each other for long periods of time and now we will be leaving them in Ohio and heading their way to San Diego. Is this not my luck? Well for me it is good luck at that. I don’t get to see my brother Denny and sister-in-law, Sher, very often so we will see them with the rest of my siblings at the wedding, then get to have him and Sher all to ourselves in California.

From Chula Vista – south of San Diego, we will head on up the Pacific Coast Highway. While most people who travel this road go from north to south, we will be going from south to north and end up - who knows… maybe Vancouver or maybe in a Walmart Parking lot -- eeeegads I hope not! We hope to make this more of a relaxing vacation and if all goes well, we can send some pictures of The PCH scenery to you.

Each year I dedicate our vacations to someone very special who has touched our lives one way or another in a positive way. This year I want to dedicate this trip to our biggest fan that read all our journals many times over - far after our trip was over. This lovely lady passed away a couple weeks ago very suddenly and I wasn’t able to attend her wake or funeral. So my tribute this year is for Ruth Sanders. Ruth was a positive, kind, loving person who was a good friend of our family. {Ruth is my sister-in-law’s mother, and we met her and Linda's dad, Art, when Bob and Linda were getting married many years ago.} Ruth and Art were good friends of my mom and dad and our whole family had an enjoyable relationship with them. We had some wacky, entertaining, times together but that could be a whole other book of various fun-filled stories.
So Ruth, grab Art and we are taking you out to Sunny California via god-only-knows-where-else with us. It should be brutally hot especially when we cross through the desert - so get your sunscreen, light clothes, baseball hat, water, and camera and prepare for what should be a wonderful adventure. Remember our 2003 Goldwing has over 105,000 miles on it so anything can happen.

Click to see the beginning of Ed & Mare's blog

Hey everyone, click the link below to see the beginning of our blog.

Love,
Mare

One Day Before We Leave

It is hours before we head out on our adventure. Although Marie's son, Joe will be 4 tomorrow, we celebrated his birthday yesterday with some of the family. Marie, Jeff & Joe arrived last night. Michelle picked up my new grandchildren (puppies: Juan and Rita) and brought them over yesterday afternoon. Mark graced us with his presence, and Rob, Suzie and Sandy all came too. Mike, Amy, Elizabeth and Eric will all meet us at Julia and Ed's wedding. We're all so excited to see the whole family before we embark on this journey.

We're almost done packing and doing the other necessary preparations to head out tomorrow afternoon. We've already posted some things to this blog, to read it, just click on the link at the bottom of the page. Oh, by the way, we'll be posting pictures on the blog too, so I'd suggest clicking on the links when possible to see the blog (the pictures won't show up in the email).

First a Warning about the content of this site. This is a free blog website and I have no control of the advertising materials when you click on a subject outside of my blog. Please don't click on to the top area where it says Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) or any other site that is outside of my own material. This is not under my control and I do not approve of some types of material on my blog site. What do you want for free. Thank you.

Two weeks before we head out for our vacation and things are starting to get hectic. It is a busy time for us since the day before we leave on vacation, our niece, Julia, will be marrying her high school sweetheart, Ed Kleppel. Everyone likes Ed and he fits right in the family. So the whole gang will be in Ohio pretty soon and we ought to have a great time at this wedding. Best wishes to the bride and groom.

So Sunday, July 22, we should be heading toward sunny California via Alabama, Louisiana and the few southern states that we haven't been to yet on a motorcycle. The weird part about going to California to see my brother and sister-in-law is while we are on our way to their house, they will be at or near our house for Julia and Ed’s wedding. We don’t see each other for long periods of time and now we will be leaving them in Ohio and heading their way to San Diego. Is this not my luck? Well for me it is good luck at that. I don’t get to see my brother Denny and sister-in-law, Sher, very often so we will see them with the rest of my siblings at the wedding, then get to have him and Sher all to ourselves in California.

From Chula Vista – south of San Diego, we will head on up the Pacific Coast Highway. While most people who travel this road go from north to south, we will be going from south to north and end up - who knows… maybe Vancouver or maybe in a Walmart Parking lot -- eeeegads I hope not! We hope to make this more of a relaxing vacation and if all goes well, we can send some pictures of The PCH scenery to you.

Each year I dedicate our vacations to someone very special who has touched our lives one way or another in a positive way. This year I want to dedicate this trip to our biggest fan that read all our journals many times over - far after our trip was over. This lovely lady passed away a couple weeks ago very suddenly and I wasn’t able to attend her wake or funeral. So my tribute this year is for Ruth Sanders. Ruth was a positive, kind, loving person who was a good friend of our family. {Ruth is my sister-in-law’s mother, and we met her and Linda's dad, Art, when Bob and Linda were getting married many years ago.} Ruth and Art were good friends of my mom and dad and our whole family had an enjoyable relationship with them. We had some wacky, entertaining, times together but that could be a whole other book of various fun-filled stories.
So Ruth, grab Art and we are taking you out to Sunny California via god-only-knows-where-else with us. It should be brutally hot especially when we cross through the desert - so get your sunscreen, light clothes, baseball hat, water, and camera and prepare for what should be a wonderful adventure. Remember our 2003 Goldwing has over 105,000 miles on it so anything can happen.

One Week Before:

Together Ed and I changed the spark plugs on the bike. We had to set the foot-pounds with the torque wrench we have in our tools but the torque wrench that we have doesn't show that small amount of torque you need to tighten up the plugs. It is an incredibly light amount of torque you use to tighten up these plugs so Ed used his own idea of torque on them. Hope it works. We got a new back tire put on and Bob Gerberich, formerly known as Wadsworth Transmission and probably now known as B & L Racing Company, checked the bike out real well and assured us we won't break down in the desert. Ed told Motorcycle Bob that if we breakdown - especially in the desert, he would have to deal with me. He laughed but when he saw the look on my face, he just cleared his throat and told us we would be fine. I told you before, the older I get the more I fear the hotter weather. I don't know why but I just can't take heat like I used to. 92 degrees is the limit on the bike with the sun out - anything after that Ed should fear for his life.

We have to change the oil and wash the bike tonight. Our little trailer, Babalou, will be in the garage as well so we can start putting that together, too.

Ed will pick up the triptix from AAA today and it seems like everything is falling in to place. I'm getting my act together trying to make sure I have everything I need. It never fails, even though I have a list and check off everything I need to take with us, there is always something I forget to take. My mind is on the heat so I am packing like I'm going to the Middle East. Ugh, do I need to wear a burka? Watch now we will have a cool wave and I won't be warm enough. Hmmm that sounds ok right about now...